I take a moment to grab a drink of water and glance out the window to watch my kids playing with our new neighbors in the humid heat outside. Tears stinging my eyes, I praise God for new friends. The boxes are still piled high and they need to be unpacked quickly––before things get even moldier than they already are. I chuckle to myself, realizing that I haven’t even flinched at the mold I found on my daughters’ puzzles (or everything else). Coming from the high desert in Southern Colorado, mold was at one time a foreign concept to me––as foreign as driving on the other side of the road, another thing I do daily without thinking twice.

Come to think of it there are lot of things I’ve come to accept as a normal part of life that were unfathomable to me before my first overseas living experience six years ago. I live in relative peace with the geckos that live on my walls, the cockroaches that crawl into my shoes, and the mosquitoes that attack me when I step out the door. I’m not startled or offended when my neighbors block off the street to hold a (rowdy) wedding. I’ve even learned how to keep a straight face when my senses are assaulted in the local market.

I’m often struck by the craziness of this lifestyle, of living so far outside my home culture that I have been known to refer to it as living in “opposite world.” Truly, it does feel like everything is the complete reverse of what I thought was “normal.” And yet, I’m beginning to feel quite comfortable in this new world I’m living in. How can this be?

I think the main reason I’m finding it so easy to slip into this new home is the people. We’ve been welcomed with open arms by nearly every Indonesian we’ve met. So far, it feels like we’ve been mostly on the receiving end of all the help––even though we thought we were coming here so we could help them!

It’s rewarding to be out there, as my husband is, flying the airplane and being directly involved in saving lives and carrying the Gospel to unreached people. But I believe it’s even more rewarding to find ourselves helpless and dependent on the kindness of God’s children here in Indonesia. We suddenly realize how dependent we children of God are on one another. We simply couldn’t be here without our national friends’ help. This is the Body of Christ at work––at its best––and I’m daily humbled to be a small part of it.